Before another hour had passed, the disclosure of the husband's sudden death was followed by the suspense of the wife's mortal peril.

She lay helpless on her widowed bed; her own life, and the life of her unborn child, trembling in the balance.
But one mind still held possession of its resources--but one guiding spirit now moved helpfully in the house of mourning.
If Miss Garth's early days had been passed as calmly and as happily as her later life at Combe-Raven, she might have sunk under the cruel necessities of the time.

But the governess's youth had been tried in the ordeal of family affliction; and she met her terrible duties with the steady courage of a woman who had learned to suffer.

Alone, she had faced the trial of telling the daughters that they were fatherless.
Alone, she now struggled to sustain them, when the dreadful certainty of their bereavement was at last impressed on their minds.
Her least anxiety was for the elder sister.

The agony of Norah's grief had forced its way outward to the natural relief of tears.